Glossary
This page should list all the terms used in the game of contract bridge, sorted in alphabetical order. All terms which are too short for an article should be redirected here. No internal links outside this page (except redirects) should point to this page. A ACBL The zonal bridge organisation of North America. advance Advance is a term used in defensive bidding. If the partner of the overcaller/doubler bids, he becomes the advancer. asking bid An asking bid is one which requires partner to respond with one of several bids to give more information. Typically the captain makes the asking bids. Stayman and Jacoby 2NT are both common asking bids. B bottom A board that is played the worst in the field. If MP scoring is used, the term is equivalent in meaning as zero. bust A bust is a very weak hand with a long suit. In particular, when partner opens notrump, the contract is undesirable. A bust hand therefore runs to the long suit where it is safer. This is particularly common with minor suits. C canapé A bidding style that bids short suits before long suits. captain Once a player has limited her hand, she becomes the private and her partner becomes the captain. The captain's job is to ask for any more information she needs to determine where the best contract will be, and then to sign off in that bid. She therefore forces the private until she has enough information. Once the captain has made a non-forcing bid, the private should no longer make any free bids. convention An artificial call in a natural system to communicate specific information. Contrast: treatment convert To convert a call means to change the meaning of a call. For example, a penalty pass converts a takeout double to penalty. D denomination A denomination is one of the four suits, or notrump (NT). The ascending order of the denomination is , , , , and NT. direct The direct seat is the seat directly after the right-hand opponent has bid. An immediate overcall is therefore called a direct overcall, and a number of other terms also inherit this name. The opposite term is balancing. double-dummy The term double-dummy refers to the situation when all four hands are known. It is because when there are two dummies lying on the tables, all four hands are known. See also double-dummy solver. E F feature An outside A, K, or Q is typically called a feature. This is used, for instance, in rebids after a 2NT response to a weak two bid. fert (slang) Short for fertiliser, an opening used for very weak hands in strong pass systems. field The field is the set of contestants playing the same board. This term only applies to pair duplicate events. fit A fit is typically 8 cards in one suit between a partnership. Common shapes for fits are 5-3, 4-4, 5-4, 6-2, etc. A 7-card fit is called a Moyesian fit. free bid A free bid is a bid when not forced. Usually the term is describe in the situation when partner makes a forcing bid and RHO overcalls, hence frees the forcing bid. G H HCP . high card point High card points (HCPs) are used in hand evaluation. An ace is 4 points, king is 3 points, queen is 2 points, jacks is 1 point. There are 40 HCPs in a deck. HKCBA The regional bridge organisation of Hong Kong. I IMP International Match Point, a form of scoring in duplicate bridge. J K L level The term level has two related meaning: * The level of a bid. If used in this way, a number is attached to it. For example, to are called 1-level bids. * A measure of the bidding space. For example, a bid after consumes two levels. M MP Matchpoint, a form of scoring in duplicate bridge. N notrump Notrump, or no trump, means its literal meaning, i.e. without trump suit. O off A convention is said to be off if it can't be activated at that point of the auction. Otherwise, it is said to be on. For example, if Stayman is off when a 1NT opening is interfered by a double, a bid by the responder is a natural sign off. on A convention is said to be on if it can be activated at that point of the auction. Otherwise, it is said to be off. For example, if Stayman is on when a 1NT opening is interfered by a double, a bid by the responder is Stayman. P pair Two players as partnership, one sitting opposite to the other. A pair event is an event which is entered by pairs. See duplicate bridge for details. pass or correct A pass-or-correct bid is a kind of 2-suited sign off which shows no further interest. It requires the partner to pass or correct to the other suit. penalty * The score awarded to the opponents when the contract is set. * A score given to the non-offending side when someone violates rules. prerequisite Some conventions only make sense if other conventions are in play. These are called prerequisites. puppet A puppet is an artificial call which unconditionally requires the partner to make a specific bid, usually the lowest one, after which the player placing the puppet can have further action. A puppet is different from a relay that a relay bid itself shows nothing, but asks the partner to respond something; a puppet show something, but requests the partner to return, showing nothing. Q quack (slang) Queens and Jacks. They are useful when supported but usually useless when unsupported. R S sac Slang for sacrifice To deliberate bid a contract that cannot be made, hoping that the will be less than the value of the making contract by the opponents. self-raise A self-raise is a raise of a suit previously bid by the same player. It usually shows a longer suit then before, Such a bid is almost always limiting. sign off A sign off is a bid indicating that partner should pass. Typically, game bids are sign offs. Other instances is when it becomes clear that there is no possibility for game. slam A small slam is a 6-level contract; a grand slam is a 7-level contract. As the bonuses for slam is very large, conventions are developed for accurate bidding. The bonuses for slam: space The bidding space has 7 levels and 35 steps. Making a bid always take up some space, but making other calls doesn't. step Bidding space is measured in levels and steps. The space between a bid and the immediate next bid is called a step. For example, - is 3 steps, - is 34 steps. A level is equivalent to 5 steps. solid A suit is considered solid if it contains an unbroken line of honors from the A. Typically, A-K-Q is required to call a suit solid, but this can be generalized to more (i.e. "five solid" would mean A-K-Q-J-T, and so on). It is useful to show solid suits to confirm a maximum weak two bid. A suit is nearly solid if it is missing a single low honor from being solid. Thus, A-K-J is nearly solid. suit There are 4 suits in the deck: (club), (diamond), (heart), (spade). and are called the minor suit's and and are called the '''major suit's. A major suit scores 30 per odd trick, a minor suit scores 20 per odd tricks. As major suit games need one less trick to make, it is generally preferable to place contracts in majors instead of minors. The boss suit is the spade suit, since it is the highest suit, thus having the ability to take up the whole level and wins competitive biddings. T team Some tournament are played in teams. A team is formed by 4 to 6 players, with 4 of them playing, the remaining spare. When team A and B compete, the N-S pair of team A plays with the E-W pair of team B, the E-W pair of team A plays with the N-S pair of team B, and the team result is compared by subtracting the opponents score from the other table, sitting at the same position (or equivalently add the points of the teammates from the other table together). (See also duplicate bridge) top A board that is played the best in the field. If MP scoring is used, the board gets all available MPs. treatment A natural call to communicate specific information. Contrast: convention trick A trick is formed by all four players playing a card into it in turn. U underlead To underlead an honour means to lead a card from the suit with the honour. V W weak or strong A call is called '''weak or strong if it denotes strength of two distinct ranges (weak or strong). It is not used by strength between the two ranges. X Y Z zero At MP scoring, a board that gets zero matchpoints. Same as bottom. Category:Terminology